Some people love Apple’s new Liquid Glass interface. Most of them work at Apple.

Jokes aside, the springy, heavily animated, and relatively transparent user interface–included with the latest “26” operating systems for Mac, iPhone, iPad, and all other Apple devices—is divisive. Many users like it, but designers and accessibility advocates criticize it for sacrificing clarity and readability on the altar of flashiness. People with older devices find the graphically intensive design is slowing everything down. And others just find the morphing transparent blobs to be kinda … ugly.

Whatever camp you're in, there is no way to roll back the user interface entirely to the way things used to be. But there are some settings you can tweak to de-Glass things, increase the readability of onscreen text, and speed up your hardware if the animations are bogging down your device.

Reduce Transparency

Hidden in the Accessibility settings of your Apple device is a toggle to Reduce Transparency. Flipping this toggle will make windows and other interface elements less see-through.

On a Mac you need to open System Settings, click Accessibility in the left-side panel, then click Display. You'll see the toggle for reducing transparency. Toggle this and you'll notice right away that the menu bar is whole again. As you use the operating system, you'll notice that most for the formerly glassy see-through elements are now mostly solid.

On an iPhone or iPad, the process is only slightly different. Open System Settings, go to the Accessibility section, then the Display & Text Size section. From here you can tap the Reduce Transparency toggle. Do so and all the various glassy bits of the user interface will become solid.

I recommend changing this setting and seeing how you like it. It's not a perfect fix, but it disables the most distracting part of Liquid Glass: the constant distorted transparency. I also tested this tweak on an old iPad that was feeling slow after the iPadOS 26 update, and it's downright snappy now.

A Few Other Suggestions

Reducing transparency really undoes the worst part of Liquid Glass, but you can go a little further. Here are a few more tips.

The Increase Contrast option is in the same menu as Reduce Transparency. Toggling it will put an outline around all the arguably too-subtle edges and outlines throughout the operating system. It makes the interface elements on the screen look outright retro, which some people may not love, but give it a shot if you find it hard to see the edges of things while using your devices.

If you're finding your older device runs slowly, even with reduced transparency, I recommend also toggling the Reduce Motion setting, which you can find in Accessibility > Motion. Toggle this setting and the various animations used by the operating system will be simplified. This should result in a device that feels faster and more responsive.

Finally, on your iPhone, the toolbar in Safari, the default web browser, has been condensed in the latest update. Doing things like seeing all of your tabs now requires multiple taps. You can get the old toolbar back in System Settings by heading to Applications > Safari and scrolling down to the Tab Style section. Tap Bottom or Top, depending on your preferences, and you'll find the old toolbar back.

Like I said: None of this will give you back the old, pre-Glass operating system you preferred. These tweaks do roll back the worst parts of the changes, though, so give them a shot if you're annoyed.

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Posted Friday 26 September 2025 at 7:32 am AEST (my time).

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According to the developer, Flyoobe now supports Windows 11 version 25H2, and it should run "smoothly on the new release." Windows 11 version 24H2 users will also benefit from these optimizations, as versions 24H2 and 25H2 share the same branch, and updating to the latter can be done with a simple enablement package. Speaking of packages, Flyoobe 1.23 lets you get the necessary eKB so that you can quickly move from version 24H2 to 25H2. Finally, there are several improvements to the user interface.

Here is the complete changelog:

• Added support for Windows 11 25H2 (app now runs smoothly on the new release)
• New extension script to upgrade to Windows 11 25H2 via the enablement package (with info, compatibility check and download options). This is an optional helper for users who prefer a simple way to activate 25H2 as many systems are already ready for the update without requiring a full ISO upgrade. The script can be found under (Setup) Extensions > Windows 11 25H2 Enablement Package or by searching for it
• Setup extensions improved: script output can now be viewed in the internal log window
• UI refinements: new Flyoobe icon added to the main UI (top left), click opens app info & settings
• Extension management moved into the More menu (top right) for easier access

You can download Flyoobe 1.23 from its official GitHub repository. In case you missed it, Rufus, another useful tool for experiments with Windows 11 and incompatible devices, has recently been updated to version 4.10. It introduced dark mode, support for Windows CA 2023 certificates, and more.

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Posted Friday 26 September 2025 at 6:17 am AEST (my time).

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Microsoft's original plan was to give those who wanted to stay with Windows 10 twelve more months of updates for $30, 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points, or a simple settings backup with a Microsoft Account. This essentially made extended updates free for all—all you had to do was share some data with Microsoft. Now, things are changing for Windows 10 users in Europe.

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed that customers in the EEA do not need to pay or share any data with Microsoft to get additional security updates:

"In the European Economic Area, we’re making updates to the enrollment process to ensure it meets local expectations and delivers a secure, streamlined experience. Our goal is to support customers and provide them with options as they transition to Windows 11, with uninterrupted access to critical security updates."

A letter from the Euroconsumers group also confirmed that Microsoft does not require anything in return from users in the EEA:

"We are pleased to learn that Microsoft will provide a no-cost Extended Security Updates (ESU) option for Windows 10 consumer users in the European Economic Area (EEA). We are also glad this option will not require users to back up settings, apps, or credentials, or use Microsoft Rewards. This was our main Digital Markets Act (DMA) related concern, as linking access to essential security updates to engagement with Microsoft's own services raised reasonable doubt of compliance with obligations under Article 6(6) of the DMA."

It is worth noting that the program's period remains unchanged. Despite demands from various consumer groups, Microsoft is not willing to budge on its 12-month timeframe. That means that home PCs will stop receiving security updates once the Extended Security Updates program ends on October 13, 2026. However, commercial users can extend Windows 10's lifecycle all the way up to three years by paying Microsoft a fee for each enrolled device.

If you want to know how to enroll your Windows 10 PC in the Extended Security Update program, check out our dedicated guide.

Source: Windows Central

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Posted Friday 26 September 2025 at 6:15 am AEST (my time).

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The full changelog is given below:

Changes and Improvements

[General]

• This update includes a small set of general improvements and fixes that improve the overall experience for Insiders running this build on their PCs.

[Networking]

• Fixed an issue where you might not be able to connect to shared files and folders if you were using the Server Message Block (SMB) v1 protocol on NetBIOS over TCP/IP NetBIOS (NetBT) after the latest updates.

Known issues

[General]

• We’re working on the fix for an issue causing some Insiders with Arm64 PCs to experience an increase in bugchecks (green screens) with error IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL in the latest Canary builds.

[For developers]

• PIX on Windows is unable to play back GPU captures on this OS version. This will be addressed by a new PIX release, estimated to arrive by the end of September. In the meantime, if you are impacted, you can use the “Send Feedback” button in PIX or contact us on the DirectX Discord server and we can help provide private builds.

You can find the official blog post here on Microsoft's website.

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Posted Friday 26 September 2025 at 6:03 am AEST (my time).

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So, what does it do? It's a toggle that lets you switch between DuckDuckGo Search and Duck.AI.

It was announced low-key on reddit, and details are sparse. The new experience is currently live in the DuckDuckGo browser on Windows and macOS on DuckDuckGo.com. However, it does not seem to be available on Firefox, Chrome and other browsers on desktop. I also tested the DuckDuckGo mobile app, it's not available in it either. That's why the title says DuckDuckGo Browser, and not just DuckDuckGo (the search engine). The toggle is also available on the new tab page in the browser, which is set to DuckDuckGo.com in the browser.

Is this an important feature? It could be, because normally when you have to use Duck AI, you have to run a search and then choose AI assist, or go to Duck.AI and then type your query. Now, you can switch between the two and use whatever you like, it does save a couple of seconds, which could add up. For people who have set DuckDuckGo as their home page, or new tab page, the new experience is a nice little quality of life update, just like the one that lets you hide AI generated images in the search results.

Now, if you don't like this change, and wish to disable it. Click on the menu button on the right side of the screen to open the sidebar, and toggle "Duck.AI" from the Sections. You can also manage this from the browser's Settings > Appearance > New Tab Page.

The option on the sidebar and settings page could be the reason why the option is possibly exclusive to DuckDuckGo's browser.

DuckDuckGo recently added an option to block sites from search results. To do this, perform a search, and click on the three-dot menu next to a result. Click on "block site from all results". This will hide the domain from your searches. If search results contain a blocked site, DuckDuckGo will say "You've blocked 1 site: 1 result hidden", you can click on Show Results to temporarily view the results. Click on Manage, to unblock a domain, or go to https://duckduckgo.com/settings#general-domainlist and click on the Unblock button next to a blocked domain.

While this is a cool option to have, there are a couple of limitations. You can only add 5 domains to the list, which is not great, because there are tons of spammy websites out there. Also, this site blocking is a temporary setting, so if you delete your browsing data, you'll need to do it all over. That's less than ideal.

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Posted Friday 26 September 2025 at 6:02 am AEST (my time).

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One of the biggest stories out of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit in Maui isn’t just about Qualcomm — it’s how Google is finally merging Android and ChromeOS to create a new operating system for computers. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon revealed that it’s finally happening, and now, a Google exec has revealed when it’s happening, too.

It’s “something we’re super excited about for next year,” said Google’s Sameer Samat, head of Android Ecosystem, at the tail end of Qualcomm’s announcement keynote.

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If you think about the laptop form factor, we’ve had ChromeOS for a long time and we’re super committed to that platform and it’s been really successful for us, we’ve learned a lot from it as well. We also have Android tablets that have been super successful, they’re becoming more productivity machines all the time. So I think the opportunity for us that we see is how do we accelerate all the AI advancement that we’re doing on Android and bring that to the laptop form factor as rapidly as possible, and also have the laptop and the rest of the Android ecosystem work seamlessly together.

 

So what we’re doing is we’re basically taking the ChromeOS experience and re-baselining the technology underneath it on Android. So that combination is something we’re super excited about for next year, and we’re working with yourselves and others on it, and we can’t wait.

(I’m not sure about that whole “Android tablets have been super successful” part, but hey.)

Neither Qualcomm nor Google have said precisely how they’re working together on the combined OS, but Qualcomm doesn’t just make the most popular flagship Android phone processor — here’s the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 that’ll likely appear in the next Samsung Galaxy — but also PC chips now.

Today, it announced the Snapdragon X2 Elite and Elite Extreme with claims that they’re the most efficient chips available for Windows PCs. That announcement came without a mention of Google or Android or Chrome, but it wouldn’t be surprising if an Android for PC targeted those chips or similar.

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Posted Thursday 25 September 2025 at 6:23 pm AEST (my time).

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Today, Microsoft has announced that it is changing the standard red color in the font color picker in Microsoft 365 apps, including Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote. This change applies to Windows and Mac.

Up until now, the standard red color had an RGB value of 255,0,0. However, this did not meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) designated for displaying text in red color in a contrasting manner on a white background. As such, Microsoft has slightly tweaked the RGB value to 238,0,0 to meet this particular requirement.

Microsoft says that while the change may appear minor, it claims that this "significantly" changes the color contrast, which is a major improvement for those with low vision or color vision deficiencies. The good thing is that customers don't need to do anything special to make use of this configuration change. If you select the standard red color from the font color picker and then navigate to the More Colors > Custom option, you should see 238,0,0 listed under the RGB values.

Use of the standard red color is particularly common in Office applications, usually to highlight incorrect data or generally any text that requires particular attention. Microsoft 365 customers can take advantage of the updated red color in the previously mentioned Office applications on the following configurations:

• Windows: Version 2411 (Build 18324.20012) or later
• Mac: Version 16.92 (Build 24120731) or later

In our testing, the web variants of these Office applications still seem to have the old RGB value of 255,0,0 for the standard red color. It's unclear when Microsoft plans to make this change on the web too.

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Posted Thursday 25 September 2025 at 6:22 pm AEST (my time).

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Bugfixes were made available to Version 2507 (Build 19029.20136) and Version 2508 (Build 19127.20154). We'll start off with Version 2507 which received eight bugfixes, they are summarized below:

• Customers who were importing queries from older databases which had never been used with the Monaco SQL editor were receiving errors, but this should not be the case anymore
• Queries which had unicode characters were not being saved in the new Monaco SQL editor, this behavior has been patched
• Another issue with the new Monaco SQL editor was that you would get errors when running the Find Duplicates and Crosstab query wizards, this shouldn't happen moving forward
• Pressing the F1 key in the new editor resulted in a crash, but it should now launch the context-sensitive help
• An error was thrown when referencing an OLE automation object in VBA code, Microsoft says that this was happening when the object was stored in an Unbounded Object Frame
• Crashes were occurring when opening queries directly in SQL view, this is now fixed
• Images should now display correctly on button and image controls
• Microsoft is deprecating the Salesforce connector, so it has added an advisory within Access about this change

The more recent version, which is 2508, received five bugfixes, these are detailed below:

• Control wizards were not launching when adding new controls to subform in design view, this should work now
• Access would crash when pressing F6 in Design View, but it will now allow navigation with forms
• Users can now select Large Number fields in the Find Unmatched Query Wizard
• All wizards previously throwing errors on 32-bit configurations should now work
• Some fields were being incorrectly encoded when exporting to HTML, this has now been patched

If you are still using Access, do keep in mind that Access 2016 and 2019 will run out of support within the next few weeks, so remember to upgrade to a supported version before then, ideally the variant present in Microsoft 365.

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Posted Thursday 25 September 2025 at 6:21 pm AEST (my time).

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After spending about two weeks at the beta stage, Rufus 4.10 stable is out for everyone. This release is notable for a few reasons. For one, Rufus now supports dark mode, which is a welcome change for those who like to keep the lights off. Next, Rufus 4.10 brings support for Windows CA 2023, Microsoft's newest Secure Boot certificates, which replace the soon-expiring original certificates. The latest update lets you create media with Windows CA 2023. Just keep in mind that you need a Windows 11 version 25H2 ISO for that (you can already download Windows 11 version 25H2 images). You can read more about Windows CA 2023 compatibility in Rufus 4.10 in the FAQ section on GitHub.

Other changes include the ability to save an existing drive as ISO, improved error reporting and persistence support for Linux Mint, and a few fixes. Here is the complete changelog:

• Add Dark Mode support (courtesy of @ozone10)
• Add support for creating Windows CA 2023 compatible media (requires a Windows 11 25H2 ISO).
• Add support for saving an existing drive to ISO (UDF only)
• Improve error reporting when saving to VHD/VHDX (with thanks to @Kazkans)
• Improve persistence support for Linux Mint
• Fix UEFI DBX updates being reported in some timezones, even when there are none
• Fix a situation where no file system can be selected in ISO mode
• Fix a crash when trying to process Windows ISOs with very long paths

Rufus 4.10 is now available for download from GitHub and the official website. You can also update to the latest version from an existing installation.

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Posted Thursday 25 September 2025 at 3:52 am AEST (my time).

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According to reports on GitHub, installing PowerToys 0.94 sometimes gets stuck with the following bootstrapper error: Failed to load SilentFilesInUseBAFunction.dll (0x8007007e). This behavior was observed when installing PowerToys from any source (GitHub, winget, or the Microsoft Store) with or without elevated privileges. Now, following version 0.94.1's release which did not fix the error, 0.94.2 is now available for download, with a slightly updated changelog:

• #41853 - Installer: Fixed the missing vcruntime dependency error that blocked installations and caused the “Failed to load SilentFilesInUseBAFunction.dll (0x8007007e)” bootstrapper failure, restoring successful installs from GitHub, winget, and the Microsoft Store.

In case you missed it, PowerToys 0.94 was released earlier this month with a couple of much-needed improvements. The app now has a dedicated search bar, allowing you to quickly find necessary settings and modules. PowerToys now has a shortcut conflict detector in case you have a bunch of actions assigned to a single shortcut, plus a new gliding cursor mode for Mouse Pointer Crosshairs, which offers improved accessibility.

PowerToys 0.94 was not the biggest feature update, but in version 0.95, developers promise to introduce several major changes. For one, look out for a new module that will take care of automatic theme switching in Windows 11 based on your schedule, plus a fully revamped Keyboard Manager user interface.

You can download PowerToys 0.94.2 directly from GitHub, or the Microsoft Store. Additionally, you can run Windows Terminal and type winget install Microsoft.PowerToys -s winget.

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Posted Thursday 25 September 2025 at 3:50 am AEST (my time).

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According to IEEE, vibe coding could be the reason for JavaScript’s apparent decline in popularity; its ranking relies on public signals like Google searches, Stack Exchange questions, and GitHub activity. As more people ask AI for help, instead of other people, this traditional traffic is reducing and it’s believed that JavaScript could disproportionately be affected.

IEEE said that programmers are moving away from public forums like Stack Exchange, instead using private conversations with LLMs like Claude and ChatGPT. The number of weekly questions on Stack Exchange for all Top Programming Languages (TPLs) dropped to just 22% of what it was in 2024. AI assistants like Cursor and Windsurf reduce the need to ask questions in the first place.

According to IEEE, as AI takes over more coding, programmers will care less about the specifics of a language. It said that LLMs are powerful enough to generate code in a variety of languages, which blurs the lines between what’s the best language for a given task. One downside to the greater use of AI is that new languages might struggle to emerge because they lack the large datasets AIs need for training; IEEE said we could be creating a “frozen in time” effect.

IEEE speculated on a future where programmers tweak prompts to generate software rather than reading or maintaining source code. It said if this were to happen, computer science degrees and their emphasis on fundamentals could lead to a rise in their value over coding boot camps.

While programming with much dependence on AI can make programming more accessible to people, the code isn’t as clean as when a person writes it and can include vulnerabilities that the developer doesn’t have any clue about if the AI slipped them in. Apparently, businesses have started to hire back humans in order to fix sloppy work made by AI - this goes for coding too.

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Posted Thursday 25 September 2025 at 3:48 am AEST (my time).

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In the coming days, Microsoft is expected to launch the 2025 Update for Windows 11 (version 25H2), which marks the fourth feature update for the desktop version of the operating system. However, this release isn't as significant as version 24H2, but it's still important not to skip it.

In this guide, I'll walk you through 10 interesting facts about Windows 11 version 25H2 that you need to know before upgrading.

Facts you may not know about Windows 11 version 25H2

These are some of the facts regarding the new feature update for Windows 11.

1: Same operating systems

Although Microsoft is touting Windows 11 version 25H2 as a new release of the operating system, it shares the same platform as version 24H2, which means that both operating systems are identical under the hood.

2: Same feature set

Since the two operating systems are identical, they both share the same set of features and changes, which is one of the reasons the company has been releasing the same improvements for both the Dev and Beta Channels.

If you notice, even though the previews for version 25H2 and 24H2 have different build numbers (26220.xxxx and 26100.xxxx), they usually have the same KB number. This is because they are both virtually identical operating systems.

It's important to note that the company will continue to roll out the same improvements for both operating systems, at least for the foreseeable future. However, at least initially, the Windows 11 2025 Update is or big improvements.

For consumers, it’s the end of the road for 23H2, and a deadline looms.

After nearly a year of urging you to delay the upgrade to Windows 11 24H2, I’m now giving you the all-clear. Accordingly, I am lowering the MS-DEFCON level to 4.

I’m also suggesting a deadline for consumers: Install 24H2 no later than December 9, 2025, otherwise known as Patch Tuesday for December. That’s because the last updates for Windows 11 23H2 will be released in November, according to the Windows Home and Pro Lifecycle and the Modern Lifecycle Policy.

Figure 1 shows a quick summary of the dates when security updates end (or have ended) for the four major feature releases of Windows 11.

Figure 1. End dates for security updates for Windows 11

From this brief table, you can see that consumers get security updates for two years after the feature version is released, while Enterprise and Education customers get three years.

With respect to consumers, I’m not particularly concerned about issues and side effects in this month’s updates. For businesses, there are still a few nagging items that must be addressed.

24H2 takes a while to install, causing downtime. You’ll need to ensure that you set aside maintenance windows to install the 24H2 update. Unlike the 23H2 install that was an enablement package and therefore fast, 24H2 is a full reinstall. It keeps your information intact.

By now, everyone should know that Windows 10 22H2 is coming to the end of the road. As I discussed in my newsletter column yesterday, consumers can obtain an inexpensive, one-year Extended Security Updates (ESU) plan at a reasonable cost or, in some cases, for free. Businesses can obtain the ESU for one, two, or three years. You will still receive updates in October, but by November you should have an ESU plan in place, be signed up for 0patch security patches, or move to Windows 11.

Consumers

I’ve not been tracking any major issues with the September updates for Windows 10 22H2. Install updates now. In addition, I’ll urge you to also ensure that you review your options going forward. We have lots of options.

There is one corner case. For those with a peer-to-peer network of PCs with Windows 10 22H2, Windows 11 23H2, and Windows 11 24H2 that continues to use Server Message Block version 1 (SMBv1), there is a puzzling issue: some machines can’t access shared or mapped folders. 

Microsoft acknowledged the issue but, as of this writing, has not released a fix. If you are impacted, the only thing you can do is uninstall the September updates and then pause updates.

It’s not affecting everyone. For example, I have a peer-to-peer network at home with a mixture of Windows 10 and Windows 11 and cannot reproduce the issue. But then again, my network has SMBv2 enabled and is not using SMBv1. One person removed SMBv1 from their systems and now can access their network shares.

You can test whether SMBv1 is enabled by running the following command in PowerShell:

Get-SmbServerConfiguration | Format-List EnableSMB1Protocol

Figure 2. SMBv1 is not enabled on this PC.

Businesses

For businesses, the SMBv1 issue is most likely due to duplicate security identifiers (SIDs) occurring as a result of cloning software. You can test this at a command prompt by typing the following command to list the users’ SIDs.

wmic useraccount get name,sid

These two major issues, SMBv1 and duplicate SIDs, are not occurring on all systems. But if you are impacted, these side effects can be extremely annoying.

To remedy this issue, you have two alternatives. The first is to use the sysprep command that will reset the SIDs. It may also reset any personal software settings, so it might not be ideal. On an affected PC, perform the following steps:

The second way to fix this issue is to change the SID, using third-party tools:

Determine the SID on the computers, using Sysinternals\PsGetsid64.exe;

Remember, you can always uninstall the updates for September and put future updates on pause. To uninstall updates, go into Windows update, click on update history, scroll down to the bottom and find the most recent update, and then click on uninstall. Remember to pause updates.

Security identifiers (SIDs) are unique identifiers to a system. As Microsoft notes in a Learn post:

A SID is used to uniquely identify a security principal or security group. Security principals can represent any entity that the operating system can authenticate. Examples include a user account, a computer account, or a thread or process that runs in the security context of a user or computer account.

Each account or group, or each process that runs in the security context of the account, has a unique SID that’s issued by an authority, such as a Windows domain controller. The SID is stored in a security database. The system generates the SID that identifies a particular account or group at the time the account or group is created. When a SID is used as the unique identifier for a user or group, it can never be used again to identify another user or group.

Each time a user signs in, the system creates an access token for that user. The access token contains the user’s SID, user rights, and the SIDs for any groups the user belongs to. This token provides the security context for whatever actions the user performs on that computer.

Duplicate SIDs occur only if you have cloned a system so that the SIDs on multiple computers are duplicated — and thus the systems cannot tell one workstation from another.

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Posted Wednesday 24 September 2025 at 5:36 am AEST (my time).

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The AI browser wars are heating up. Google has Gemini in Chrome, Perplexity is building its Comet AI browser, and The Browser Company just got acquired by Atlassian for $610 million. Now, Microsoft wants to be part of the AI browser conversation.

I sat down with Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman today to talk about the future of Edge, and why Microsoft is betting on its experimental Copilot Mode that controls your tabs and makes restaurant bookings.

Suleyman says Microsoft’s path is to evolve the browser and AI tools it has today — turning Edge into something AI can control directly. “I think the browser is just going to evolve to become a true agentic browser,” says Suleyman in an interview with Notepad. “Your AI will be able to use all of the same tools that you use in the browser.” That means Copilot opening new tabs, navigating to them, and reading the content of multiple tabs at the same time — all while you sit there and watch it complete tasks for you.

“It’s almost like having a little angel on your shoulder doing the boring hard work of reading reviews, doing price comparisons, synthesizing research, but instead of it happening away from you, you can actually see it in real time unfolding before your eyes,” says Suleyman.

Microsoft isn’t planning to create an overhauled AI web browser like The Browser Company has tried to do with Dia. “There isn’t going to be a new browser; this is just going to be one experience,” says Suleyman. “I think it’s quite a distinct and very powerful experience, to bring Copilot to where you’re already at rather than having to create a new browser.”

Weaving Copilot more closely into Edge, instead of totally overhauling the browser, seems like a logical move for Microsoft given its Windows user base and the fact Edge is still far behind Chrome in adoption. It may also allow Microsoft to better compete with OpenAI’s rumored AI web browser, all while providing some transparency around what AI agents are actually doing.

“Copilot is going to go off and aggregate tabs, spawn new instances, click on the buttons, do the research, and you can kind of watch the game unfold and intervene occasionally when you want to,” says Suleyman. “You’ll always be in control, and I think the transparency creates trust.”

This method of having Copilot visit websites for you, while you watch, also means that publishers still get visits from a regular browser. “It’s all born out of trying to create a more trusted AI companion, and also recognizing that there’s a lot of information on the open web and at source with publishers that’s very useful and important and will continue,” says Suleyman. “So maybe you’re not going to do the browsing as much, but your AI is going to do it for you and take traffic to those websites.”

This all sounds similar to what Perplexity is trying to do with Comet, or Google’s ambitions for Gemini in its Chrome browser. Suleyman thinks Microsoft is ahead of the competition, though. “We’ve been very deliberate and careful, and that’s going to pay dividends because we have a whole set of features that no one else on the market has today,” says Suleyman. “I think we’re actually way ahead.”

Copilot can navigate to tabs, scroll down pages, and highlight content on websites. “No one has that at the moment, and I think that’s a quite special feature,” says Suleyman.

While this all sounds futuristic and “magical” (as Suleyman puts it) if it actually works well, Microsoft won’t make this AI mode mandatory. There will always be an option to turn these AI features off for those who simply don’t want them. “We’re going to definitely keep evolving the browser as it is,” says Suleyman. “It’s still a huge experience that many millions of people use and love, and we love it too and we’ll keep developing it.”

Over the next few weeks, Microsoft is going to share more of the work it’s doing to bring more AI features to Edge. At a recent town hall, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed there would be a “consumer moment” in the fall, so I’m expecting a lot more Copilot news in the coming weeks.

The bigger question is whether the browser will even continue to exist if AI agents get intelligent and reliable enough to do browsing on your behalf every day. “Your AI companion will use all the tools that you used to use — operating systems, apps, browsers, search engines — but you will mostly use your AI companion because it’s going to be able to do everything you can do in a browser and on your PC,” says Suleyman. “In a few years’ time it will be doing all the work for you, and you’ll be passively overseeing it, steering it, giving feedback. I think it’s going to be a magical experience and a lot of people will choose to move to that.”

• Microsoft is raising prices on Xbox consoles in the US again. The Xbox Series X will be priced at $649.99 in the US starting October 3rd, up from its existing $599.99 price. The Xbox Series S will move to $399.99, up from $379.99. Microsoft blames the price hikes on “changes in the macroeconomic environment,” which is a lot of words to say: tariffs. These latest price increases mean the Xbox Series X has increased in price in the US by $150 and the Series S by $100 in just six months.
• Windows 11 is adding another Copilot button nobody asked for. Microsoft loves putting a Copilot in Windows apps, and now another one is coming to the taskbar. The latest Windows 11 test builds include a “share with Copilot” button that appears when you hover over Microsoft Edge in the taskbar. There are already Copilot buttons in Paint, Notepad, and even on keyboards and PCs. I’m anxiously awaiting where the Copilot button goes next.
• Microsoft is filling Teams with AI agents. Microsoft is adding AI agents to every Teams channel or meeting. It’s part of a push for Microsoft 365 Copilot users to get facilitator agents that will sit in on Teams meetings, create agendas, take notes, and answer questions. With Agent 365 on the horizon, I’d expect we’re going to see a lot more AI agents in Microsoft 365 in the coming months.
• Amazon, Google, and Microsoft warn employees to rush back to the US. Microsoft was part of a group of employers that responded quickly to new restrictions and fees on work visas over the weekend. Sources tell me the situation created a lot of panic internally for H-1B visa holders, particularly ones who were about to travel abroad or who were already on vacation. Some rushed home based on Microsoft’s guidance, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was forced to clarify the Trump administration’s guidance to try and calm workers and companies that they wouldn’t be charged $100,000 upon reentry and could continue to travel as normal.
• Windows 11 is getting a video wallpaper feature. Microsoft has started testing the ability to use video wallpapers on Windows 11. The feature has been spotted in the latest builds of Windows 11, and allows you to set video files like MP4 or MKV as your desktop wallpaper background. Microsoft previously supported video wallpapers in Windows Vista as a DreamScene feature for the Ultimate version of the operating system, but DreamScene was dropped from Windows 7. This new feature is similar to Wallpaper Engine, but it lacks the customization you get from that third-party app.
• Microsoft’s Windows AI Lab is a new way to test experimental features. Microsoft is starting to test experimental AI-powered features through a new Windows AI Labs program. References to this new program were spotted last week, and Microsoft has now confirmed to The Verge that the program is designed to provide early access to new AI features across Windows. The first set of features should start appearing in Microsoft Paint soon.
• Here’s a first look at Kojima’s OD Xbox game. Hideo Kojima first announced he was teaming up with Xbox for a new game in 2022, before a teaser revealed the OD name and some cast last year. We’re now getting a better look at exactly what OD is, in a new three-minute teaser trailer that holds true to Kojima’s promise that the game will be unique and immersive. The trailer makes it clear that OD will very much lean into horror for its gameplay, but we still don’t know when the game will debut. “Kojima is innovating in gameplay, story, and player engagement,” says Xbox chief Phil Spencer. “We’re collaborating closely, and we’re very excited for what’s next.”
• The EU is scrutinizing how Apple, Google, and Microsoft tackle online scams. The European Union wants to see if Microsoft, Apple, and Google are doing enough to stop online scams on their platforms. Regulators are looking at Microsoft’s Bing search engine primarily, and whether it has fake search results that lead to scams. It’s at the information request stage right now, but it could lead to the four companies being investigated more closely and potential fines in the future.
• Samsung might be saying goodbye to OneDrive photo backups. Microsoft and Samsung have enjoyed an Android partnership for more than five years now that has resulted in Samsung using OneDrive for backing up photos in its gallery app. Android Authority has discovered that this partnership might be coming to an end, after references to Samsung pulling OneDrive as a cloud backup option have been spotted in a gallery app update. I asked Microsoft to comment on this, but the company refused to discuss it.
• Discord for Windows on Arm is nearly here. Discord has been testing a native version of its communication app for Windows on Arm in recent months, and it looks like it’s nearly ready to roll out to Qualcomm-powered Windows devices. Devin Arthur has spotted that Discord’s ARM64 app has now reached public test build status. You can download the app for yourself, and hopefully it’s only a matter of weeks before it’s officially released.

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Posted Wednesday 24 September 2025 at 5:29 am AEST (my time).

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Since we are talking about Windows, third-party apps always come to the rescue where Microsoft falls short (intentionally or not). Sometimes, this help comes from Microsoft's engineers themselves. Meet WindowSill, a new app from Microsoft software engineer Etienne Baudoux, whose aim is to bring a TouchBar-like experience to Windows 11.

Note: The developer provided a review copy of the app free of charge.

WindowSill is a small (or large, depending on how you like it) panel that appears above the taskbar with a bunch of various useful features. Unlike Microsoft, which stubbornly refuses to let users reposition the taskbar, WindowSill can be placed on top of the screen or to its side. It is a very customizable experience, which I like.

But the app is not about customization, even though it is an important part of it. Its goal is to give you several easy-to-access, always-available tools. WindowSill comes with a few of them, and thanks to extensibility, other developers can contribute to the project and offer their own extensions to further extend the app’s capabilities.

Out-of-the-box, WindowSill offers the following modules:

• Media Controls: Play, pause, skip. This module works with browsers and popular streaming services such as Apple Music, Spotify, Netflix, YouTube, and more. I control music using my keyboard and mouse gestures, but it is handy to see what is currently playing.
• Clipboard History: Access to your recently copied items. This feature relies on Clipboard History in Windows Settings, and the app will prompt you to enable it during the first launch.
• Quick Reminders: I found this particularly useful. I am the kind of person who needs to write everything; otherwise, I forget it in an instant. A quick reminder to reply to that email, edit something, take out the trash—you name it. Just type something and specify when WindowSill should remind you about it (this only works for short-term reminders, like in one hour or a few minutes).

  

• AI-based Text Assistance: Rewrite, proofread, summarize, translate, change tone, and more. Paid subscription for WindowSill enables offline mode thanks to built-in AI models from OpenAI and other providers, but you can also use your own API keys for Google Gemini, ChatGPT, Llama, Claude, and more. In addition to modifying your text, WindowSill can analyze and explain text on your screen. Simply highlight what you need and click Analyze and Understand.

  

  Meeting Controls: Mute, unmute, react, leave meetings—all from WindowSill. As of right now, supported services include Teams, Zoom, and Discord. WhatsApp will join soon.
• Image and URL utilities: Change image formats, compress pictures, shorten URLs, and generate QR codes. Simply highlight a URL, and it will present you with available options.

  

• Browser controls: In the current form, these only include page zoom in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, Vivaldi, and Brave. I wish there were additional quick commands, but that’s all we have for now.

In addition to useful utilities, WindowSill offers a bunch of other conveniences. You can select items on the panel with the Win + Ctrl + Number shortcut, specify how many items appear on the screen, toggle off separate modules, and even make sure your data stays away from screenshots with screen recording protection.

I had a chance to play with WindowSill over the last few weeks, and it proved to be a very helpful addition to the tools and apps I use daily. Of course, not all modules were particularly useful, but like I said, you can toggle off what you do not need.

The only thing I am not the biggest fan of is the animations. They are technically fine and properly implemented, but a bit distracting. When switching apps, things jump around, and as a person who struggles with distractions and focus, getting used to it was a bit challenging. However, I mitigated it by turning off Windows Animations in accessibility settings, a trick I recently recommended to improve perceived Windows snappiness.

WindowsSill is now available for free in the Microsoft Store, and it works on Windows 11 and 10. However, some of its features require either a one-time purchase or a subscription. Default and third-party modules are available for free, but AI-based features (if you have your own API key), custom prompts, and local models only work after a one-time $29.99 purchase. If you want to use WindowSill and all of its capabilities without an API key, that will be $4.99 per month. There is a free one-week trial, so that you can try it before paying.

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Posted Wednesday 24 September 2025 at 5:25 am AEST (my time).

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The full changelog for the update is given below:

• [Authentication] Fixed: An issue that caused Windows sign-in screen to stop responding after a user enters the SIM PIN during sign-in using a mobile broadband connection.

• [Browser] Fixed: This update addresses an issue that affects Microsoft Edge when running in Internet Explorer compatibility mode. It stops responding due to certain same-domain redirects.

• [Country and Operator Settings Asset (COSA)] Fixed: This update brings profiles up to date for certain mobile operators.

• [Display Kernel] Fixed: This update addresses an issue that affects display configuration changes during Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) sessions with multiple monitors. The system might shut down unexpectedly when disconnected from a docking station during a streaming session.

• [Input]

  • Fixed: An issue where some characters didn’t display correctly when using the Chinese Input Method Editor (IME).

  • Fixed: This update addresses an issue where certain Chinese characters appeared as empty boxes in some text fields, such as those used in Connection Manager Administration Kit, when a character limit was set.

• [Networking (known issue)] Fixed: This update addresses an issue where you might not be able to connect to shared files and folders if you're using the Server Message Block (SMB) v1 protocol on NetBIOS over TCP/IP NetBIOS (NetBT). This can happen after installing update KB5065431.

• [Printer] Fixed: An issue where viewing the printer queue in Settings for a shared printer caused the Print Queue user interface to stop working.

• [System services and reliability] Fixed: Addresses an issue that caused McpManagement service to appear without a description on Windows.

   

You can find the support article here on Microsoft's official website.

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Posted Wednesday 24 September 2025 at 5:23 am AEST (my time).

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• [Virtualization and platform compatibility] Fixed: This update addresses an issue that affects Microsoft Office applications running in Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V) environments. The failure occurred due to a double handle closure in the AppVEntSubsystems32 or AppVEntSubsystems64 system component.

The update includes a single known issue that originates from previous updates, particularly this month's security update under KB5065426 (it also has issues with DRM/HDCP playback). Affected systems have problems connecting to shared files and folders using SMB v1:

You can download KB5068221 by heading to Settings > Windows Update. It is also available in the Microsoft Update Catalog via this link. Alongside the release, Microsoft reminded users that the original Secure Boot certificates are expiring, and customers should prepare for an upgrade. If you want to know more about this, check out this article.

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Posted Wednesday 24 September 2025 at 5:21 am AEST (my time).

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When the COVID-19 pandemic forced kids to stay home, educators flocked to VMware, and thousands of school districts adopted virtualization. The technology became a solution for distance learning during the pandemic and after, when events such as bad weather and illness can prevent children from physically attending school.

However, the VMware being sold to K–12 schools today differs from the VMware that existed before and during the pandemic. Now a Broadcom business, the platform features higher prices and a business strategy that favors big spenders. This has created unique problems for educational IT departments juggling restrictive budgets and multiple technology vendors with children's needs.

Curriculum impacted by IT delays

Ars Technica recently spoke with an IT director at a public school district in Indiana. The director requested anonymity for themself and the district out of concern about potential blowback. The director confirmed that the district has five schools and about 3,000 students. The district started using VMware’s vSAN, a software-defined storage offering, and the vSphere virtualization platform in 2019. The Indiana school system bought the VMware offerings through a package that combined them with VxRail, which is hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) hardware that Dell jointly engineered with VMware.

However, like many of VMware customers, the Indiana school district was priced out of VMware after Broadcom’s acquisition of the company. The IT director said the district received a quote that was “three to six” times higher than expected. This came as the school district is looking to manage changes in education-related taxes and funding over the next few years. As a result, the district’s migration from VMware is taking IT resources from other projects, including ones aimed at improving curriculum.

For instance, the Indiana district has been trying to bolster its technology curriculum, the IT director said. One way is through a summer employment program for upperclassmen that teaches how to use real-world IT products, like VMware and Cisco Meraki technologies. The district previously relied on VMware-based virtual machines (VMs )for creating “very easily and accessible” test environments for these students. But the school is no longer able to provide that opportunity, creating a learning "barrier," as the IT director put it.

The school district's IT department has also been seeking ways to teach the students, who use iPads in the classroom, touch typing.

“Kids aren’t typing anymore,” the IT head said.

This summer, the IT team planned to explore teaching options, including using software or developing their own app. They also wanted to test different keyboards to find one that had the layouts and durability that students need. However, the IT team couldn’t look for solutions as planned because the VMware migration took precedence. The IT director said:

There's only two people that really handle this type of stuff, so we couldn't focus on that. So [migration has] put us even farther behind in progress of some of the curriculum, as well as the sort of things that we want to explore as a technology team to help our students.

The IT worker noted that the IT team has about six employees total. For districts with less manpower or those that are less "technology-forward," dealing with a migration could be "catastrophic in that that’s too much work for one person,” the director said, adding:

It could be a chokehold, essentially, to where they're going to be basically forced into switching platforms—maybe before they were anticipating —or paying exorbitant prices that have skyrocketed for absolutely no reason. Nothing on the software side has changed. It's the same software. There's no features being added. Nobody's benefiting from the higher prices on the education side.

Mohammad Haque, co-founder and CTO at Propeller, which sells a fully managed virtual desktop infrastructure platform built on Amazon Web Services, told Ars Technica that he's seen schools be forced to redirect IT resources that would have been spent on other tasks, like upgrading cybersecurity and exploring trends such as artificial intelligence and blockchain, to migrating off of VMware.

"Projects are being re-prioritized and/or scrapped," Haque said via email. "Schools that had not yet adopted virtual desktop are either delaying these projects or dropping the plan/effort completely. Others that have already deployed virtual desktops are prioritizing migration projects to move away from VMware before their current contract/subscription ends."

Broadcom didn't respond to Ars Technica's request for comment for this article.

Compatibility problems

Migrating off of VMware hasn't only resulted in delayed projects for the Indiana school district; it has also brought complications for its HCI hardware. The district’s IT director told Ars that Dell won’t provide long-term support for the hardware if it's not running VMware. This is despite Dell reportedly touting a “10-year lifespan” on the devices when the district first bought in, in 2019, per the IT professional.

"They're basically holding our service contract hostage if we don't buy VMware," the IT director told Ars.

Put in a bind, the IT team is trying to repurpose the hardware without Dell support, noting that the district had already invested $250,000 in the system over six years.

"It's made us have to go back to the drawing board for the next three to four years, essentially," the IT leader said.

The Indiana IT director said Dell suggested that the district could buy an entirely new stack of server hardware with new support, but budget limits, especially over the coming years, make this unreasonable.

“New IT balloons very quickly, and [Dell workers] don't really seem to understand that I can't just spend that amount of money randomly,” the director said.

The Indiana district is now using the unsupported hardware, too.

"We are currently flying blind," the IT director said.

Ars reached out to Dell Technologies about the school district's situation and the impact that higher VMware prices have on organizations that have relied on Dell technology tied to VMware. A spokesperson shared the following statement:

Dell Technologies remains committed to supporting all VxRail customers with active support agreements. VxRail continues to deliver value for thousands of organizations globally, and we work closely with customers to ensure they can maximize their investment. Dell has a long history of offering choice through a broad portfolio of technology partners and solutions, helping organizations to select the path that best aligns to their strategy, infrastructure needs, and long-term IT goals.

Over in Idaho, VMware was part of Idaho Falls School District 91's IT setup since at least 2008. The school district operated about 80 VMs running on four ESXi hosts, all managed centrally through vCenter. The VMs hosted mission-critical systems, including the student information system, key databases, and other applications that directly support teaching and learning, Donovan Gregory, the district's IT SysNet administrator, told Ars.

But VMware became costly after Broadcom stopped selling perpetual licenses for VMware and bundled VMware products into a smaller number of SKUs. Notably, Broadcom got rid of VMware discounts for schools after buying the company. The Idaho district decided to migrate to Scale Computing, even though the platform "is noticeably more expensive than our pre-Broadcom VMware pricing," according to Gregory.

"Historically, VMware was very cost-effective for us, especially with education discounts," he said. "However, Broadcom’s initial renewal quote was nearly triple our previous cost and higher than Scale, Nutanix, or other alternatives we evaluated. That pricing shift was the main driver for our move."

After a two-month migration, Idaho Falls School District 91 hasn't used VMware since late August. One of the biggest migration challenges the district faced was finding new software providers to support its move to Scale Computing.

Gregory explained:

Three of our major software providers initially claimed their systems would not run in a non-VMware virtual environment. In two cases, we proved that incorrect. In the third, the vendor is still working toward compatibility, so we purchased a dedicated physical server from them rather than maintaining VMware just for one workload.

Gregory also noted that the district had "a few lingering Linux boxes that claimed they wouldn’t work on anything but VMware."

"We had two remaining ESXi hosts that last year VMware only charged us $5,000 for. So we weren’t in a hurry to move the remaining servers. However, two weeks before our renewal, they hit us with a renewal fee of $20,893 as the cheapest they could go. Obviously, we were not OK with that," he said.

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Posted Wednesday 24 September 2025 at 5:19 am AEST (my time).

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Starting with what's new, the OBS team has added a basic plugin manager and an opt-in feature for automatic crash log uploads on Windows and macOS. For users with Nvidia hardware, the update brings Voice Activity Detection to RTX Audio Effects, improving how noise suppression isolates speech.

There's now a new chair removal option for Nvidia RTX Background Removal. The team also added experimental support for a Metal renderer on Apple Silicon Macs and introduced Hybrid MOV support. This addition enables ProRes recording on macOS and provides a more compatible HEVC/H.264 plus PCM audio option across all platforms.

With this new release, Hybrid MP4/MOV containers are now the default recording format for new profiles. To prevent future compatibility issues, OBS will no longer load plugins that were built for a newer version of the application. The default bitrate for streaming has been increased from 2500 to 6000 Kbps.

One notable removal is the --disable-shutdown-check launch flag. This command-line argument was used by some to prevent the "OBS did not shut down properly" safe mode prompt from appearing, especially when OBS was closed by system shutdown scripts.

As for bug fixes, this release brings over 15 of them, addressing a range of problems from hardware encoder issues to user interface glitches. A fix was implemented for the issue where Multiview could occasionally become blank. The update also corrects a problem where incorrect color range properties were being set for the AMD AV1 encoder.

Users on macOS will be happy to know that a bug preventing screen capture at rates higher than 60fps has been squashed. Another fix resolves a memory leak that occurred when trying to output a Hybrid MP4 file to a location that was not writable. SRT users will also find that reconnection failures and crashes from invalid URLs have been fixed.

You can check out the full changelog here.

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Posted Tuesday 23 September 2025 at 5:29 pm AEST (my time).

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"It's the little things that matter the most."

This isn't some deep and meaningful post that'll make you think about the meaning of existence. It's about changing the volume on your Windows 11 PC. But it's a little thing I do countless times every day, and I just found out about this insanely useful trick.

Did you know that you can change the volume on Windows 11 from the taskbar without clicking on anything? No click and slide, no need to use hardware controls on your keyboard, your headphones or your speakers.

As I discovered from the Reddit thread above, you can change the volume on Windows 11 simply by scrolling over the icon in the taskbar.

Obviously, I'm not the only person who didn't know this existed. Counting Reddit, there's at least three of us. I don't even care that Windows 11 25H2 is completely devoid of anything interesting anymore. This has made my day.

That's because it's a feature I will actually use a lot. I often switch keyboards, some I use have hardware dials, almost all have function keys, but it's one of those features I don't have any muscle memory for. So I end up scrambling, usually unnecessarily, to click and slide the volume slider.

For those unaware, Windows 3.0 was a major release of Microsoft's operating system and was launched in 1990. And although the internet technology had been invented prior to its release, it didn't become publicly available through mainstream channels until 1993, when the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) placed the World Wide Web software in the public domain.

Knowing this timeline of events is important for the context of this article because Windows 3.0 shipped version 1.0 of the WinHelp software. It contained documentation for "online help files," which will appear strange at first glance since Windows 3.0 technically predated the availability of the internet to the public.

Microsoft veteran Raymond Chen has shed some light on this topic by clarifying that "online" during the early 1990s referred to something readily available on a computer, regardless of internet connectivity. For example, in the context of storage, online files are the ones which were immediately accessible, while offline files are items that have been archived to a tape. It would take time and effort to make them available "online". As such, WinHelp offered online files since they were readily available on Windows 3.0 computers.

Conversely, a computer that was actually connected to the network was referred to as "up", and "available offline". The second term may appear confusing at first, but it describes the computer's state with regard to other systems on the network, indicating that it was available for connection requests from other PCs.

So, all in all, Windows 3.0 contained online help files through WinHelp, even though it was not connected to the internet. This is in stark contrast to today's terminology, where online help (such as websites) is generally not considered available offline.

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Posted Tuesday 23 September 2025 at 12:32 pm AEST (my time).

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This version ships with Linux 6.14, which brings better performance, especially when it comes to gaming, thanks to the new ntsync subsystem, which helps emulate Windows NT synchronization for games running through Proton. It also provides reduced power consumption for certain AMD and Intel chipsets.

The kernel also adds support for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC and introduces a new AMDXDNA accelerator driver for Ryzen AI NPUs, adds support for more gamepads, and brings in new security features.

The installer has been updated to address accessibility after some dedicated testing. The "Before Installing", "Try or Install", "Choose a Disk," and "Encryption" views all have improved labels for screen readers. The screen reader now picks up on things like password quality feedback. The development team also fixed some instances where the screen reader would announce text styling markup. A few crash-prevention checks were added for custom installations with complex partition layouts.

Moving on to the default apps, Music has a handful of new features, including much better queue management and improved performance when dealing with large playlists. You can now search by track name, which is a feature people have wanted for a while.

The app now saves your queue and the last played track when you close it. Small quality-of-life additions include using the "+" shortcut to add new files and having album art properly show up in system media controls.

The Terminal app saw bug fixes like a persistent problem where keyboard focus was not inside the first tab when you opened a new window. Another fix addresses an issue where pasting or dropping text containing a "#" character would get cut off. You should not see incorrect line breaks when pasting text while a process is running, and the app will properly clear the "process finished" icon when you select a tab.

Other small changes include properly marking the main menus in Camera and Videos so they can be opened with the F10 keyboard shortcut. The Calculator app's "Del" button was replaced with an icon, and the action for opening a new window now shows an icon in settings.

A crash that happened with very tall screenshots has been fixed, and an issue that prevented screenshots from being saved to custom locations has been resolved.

You can learn more from the official announcement blog post.

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Posted Tuesday 23 September 2025 at 12:31 pm AEST (my time).

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Once the latest extension version is reverted, users will no longer be able to install it. If automatic updates are enabled, the web browser will also automatically revert the extension to the previous version within 24 hours for users who have installed the buggy version.

"If developing a revised version and obtaining a review won't address the issue quickly enough, you can roll back to an earlier version of your extension. Users then update to the rolled back version when their browser next checks for extension updates, which, by default, means within 24 hours," Mozilla says.

"To address this issue, you can roll back your extension by republishing a previous version with a new version number and pushing this version to users through the Developer Hub or the Add-on Submission API."

Version rollbacks are now available for any extension with at least two approved versions, enabling developers to roll back to the approved version released before the current one for versions distributed on addons.mozilla.org. However, if they're self-distributed, Firefox extension developers can revert to any approved version.

To roll back to a previously approved version via the Developer Hub, developers must use the "Rollback to a previous version" option, located next to "Upload a New Version" on the Status & Versions page.

In June, Mozilla introduced another security feature for its add-on portal to block malicious extensions that drain users' cryptocurrency wallets.

Andreas Wagner, the head of the addons.mozilla.org (AMO) review and content security team, said at the time that Mozilla had discovered and removed hundreds of such extensions over the last few years, including many scam crypto wallets.

Since then, two malicious campaigns have flooded Mozilla's official Firefox add-ons store in July and August with almost 200 extensions impersonating popular cryptocurrency wallets, including Coinbase, MetaMask, Trust Wallet, Phantom, Exodus, OKX, Keplr, and MyMonero.

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Posted Tuesday 23 September 2025 at 4:18 am AEST (my time).

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The stable VLC client is finally gaining official support for Windows 11 on Arm PCs, after it first went into testing in nightly builds well over a year ago. The popular media player now has a new release candidate build to test, version 3.0.22 RC1, which includes native Arm64 support among other improvements and fixes.

Notably, the update also fixes support for Windows XP Service Pack 3, which the few who are still using that platform will appreciate. The new release candidate build was spotted by linuxiax.com, who say this is the first release candidate build of VLC in a year.

You can check out the release candidate changelog below.

• Add option to use dark palette (Qt)
• Add compilation support for Qt6 and newer versions of Qt5
• Add Windows ARM64 builds
• Fix support for Windows XP SP3
• Allow renaming/moving/deleting of playing file on Windows
• Restrict SystemParametersInfo calls to Windows XP
• Fix Opus channel mapping
• Fix hardware decoding with VideoToolbox of XVID MPEG-4 video
• Add dav1d-all-layers option
• Fix DVD CEA-608 captions parsing
• Fix ProRes 4:4:4:4
• Disable decoding using libdca, libmpeg2 and liba52 by default in favor of libavcodec
• Handle mkv-use-chapter-codec option
• Add A_ATRAC/AT1 support in matroska
• Prevent FLAC seeking logic get stuck
• Handle pictures in FLAC
• Fix VOB/AOB LPCM/MLP detection failing occasionally
• Cut QNap title on first invalid character
• Fix display of certain JPEG files
• Fix playback of very short ASF files (duration less than 1s)
• Fix crashes in multiple demuxers (reported by rub.de, oss-fuzz and others)
• Fix SFTP seeking for large files on 32-bit OS
• UPnP: remove SAT>IP channel list fallback -
• Use a better stretch mode in wingdi
• Fetch missing device information when running in UWP
• Add AMD GPU Frame Rate Doubler (Direct3D11)

As version 3.0.22 RC1 is currently in Release Candidate phase, it's not easily available to download. You can compile it yourself via the VLC GitHub, otherwise you'll have to wait for it to be released officially before you can install or update to it like a normal app.

VLC is one of many Windows apps in recent times to get updated with support for Windows on Arm. Microsoft just celebrated the progress the platform has made in just over a year, with users spending 90% of their time on an Arm-based PC running native apps on Windows 11.

That's a huge improvement over how things were just a few years ago, where most app developers ignored the platform. Now, pretty much all mainstream apps, including VLC, now support Windows on Arm natively.

The changes this week are fairly spread out across various kernel subsystems. Many of the changes are on the driver side, specifically for GPU, networking, and sound. Other fixes were described as being fairly random, and included selftests, architecture fixes (mostly KVM-related), filesystems (most SMB), and core kernel, memory management, and networking code.

Several fixes address KVM issues across different architectures, including ARM64, s390, and LoongArch. Among the changes were multiple reverts, including two by Hugh Dickins concerning the memory management subsystem and one by Andrea Righi related to sched_ext.

There were also fixes for various hardware drivers too, such as for Intel, AMD, and Realtek sound drivers, as well as DRM graphics drivers for AMD and Intel. There were fixes for specific hardware too for Lenovo Thinkbook laptops (Lenovo Thinkbook 13x Gen 5, Gen4) and OneXPlayer handhelds, indicating ongoing efforts to improve device support.

Torvalds has encouraged developers to continue testing the release candidate over the next week. The focus on this release candidate was on stability, which is important for a smooth final release, now expected next week. If issues do pop up at the last minute, Linux 6.17 could be delayed by another week, but we should then get it.

Average Linux users are not advised to try to update to the new kernel when it's released on their own. You should wait until your preferred Linux distribution publishes it as an update through the update manager as it will then be designed to work properly with your operating system thanks to the application of any necessary tweaks.

Source: LKML

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Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Tuesday 23 September 2025 at 4:13 am AEST (my time).

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